Blood samples and other biological fluid specimens are normally taken and analyzed in hospital and clinical situations for various medical purposes. Some blood samples are taken and analyzed for laboratory test. Collection, handling, testing and using these samples typically requires the use of various medical testing instruments. As the blood and fluid specimens are usually collected in a standard sized vacuum collection tubes, the medical instruments used to test the samples are designed to accommodate these standard sized vacuum collection tubes.
Conventional vacuum blood collection tubes or containers used for storing blood sample in laboratory test are usually elongated cylindrical containers having one end closed by closure device tightly sealed thereon. This is to maintain the vacuum condition inside the tube until the time for use and to avoid any contamination of the contents which would distort the analytical result. Accordingly, the conventional vacuum blood containers are of glass or plastic tubes which sealed with partial vacuum inside by rubber stopper or enclosure, so that air pressure inside the tube is negative, less than the normal environment.
The current typical process of producing the vacuum in the tube is by needle punching technique. The air is withdrawn from the tube individually to provide vacuum condition inside the tube using penetrative technique. A needle is used to withdraw air through the tube enclosure to provide vacuum condition. The vacuum pressure in the tube is set to be at specified level in order to withdraw the exact amount of the blood sample need in medical practices. The whole process of producing the vacuum in the tube is time consuming and the penetration technique may resulted air leak in the enclosure. Hence, this will reduced the capability of the tube to withdraw sufficient amount of blood sample required.
Blood sample taken from patient which used needle attached in front to the tube is known in the art. Accordingly, low vacuum pressure inside the tube allows the blood to flow into the tube easily with correct amount required.
Typically, the vacuum blood container comes in variety of sizes and shapes depending on the amount of blood sample needed. The inner side of the tub also has different coatings of gel, chemicals and power, which depend on the required blood test.
Many inventions related to the vacuum blood container have been disclosed, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,375 and EP 2111795. However, they are related only to vacuum blood container with penetrative process technique.
It is also known that vacuuming is an essential process for producing vacuumed blood container tubes. The vacuum condition inside the blood container needs to be maintained until the blood sample is used for analysis. The existing method of producing vacuum blood container tube is using penetrating vacuum process wherein needle is inserted through rubber enclosure to draw the air from the tube. An example of this kind of process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,345. The process described hoe the tube is evacuated by a pump where the pump is assembled with needle. This needle is inserted into the enclosure to assist the pump draws out the air through the needle itself. When the required vacuum pressure is achieved, the needle is pulled out from the enclosure. However this technique is only applicable for penetrating blood container tube.
In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a non-penetrative vacuum blood container and apparatus for vacuuming said non-penetrative vacuum blood container. Accordingly, features of constructions, combination of elements and arrangement of parts of the preferred embodiments will be exemplified in the detailed description.